Practical and Practice issues for Professionals who practice in the area of taxation. Moral, social and economic issues relating to taxes, including international issues, the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, state tax issues, etc. Not for "tax protestor" issues, which should be posted in the "tax protestor" forum above. The advice or opinion given herein should not be relied on for any purpose whatsoever. Also examines cookie-cutter deals that have no economic substance but exist only to generate losses, as marketed by everybody from solo practitioner tax lawyers to the major accounting firms.

Heather Bindbeutel is at her wit's end with the Internal Revenue Service: "They are just driving me crazy. I don't understand it. I paid it." What she paid: a $3,400 debt. She says she has the paperwork to prove it, but the IRS disagreed and filed a tax lien against her. The IRS even withdrew $5,500 for the original $3,400 plus interest over nine months from her bank account.

"I'm like, 'Why are you garnishing my account? You have the money. In fact, you have it twice,'" Bindbeutel said. "[But] nobody can find the money."

"If you do not know your rights, it can feel like you are being run over," said Nina Olson, at the Taxpayer Advocate Service, a government agency that helps taxpayers when they face problems with the IRS.

Last year, the advocacy service handled 300,000 cases of taxpayers who had an unhappy experience with the IRS. Although Olson's agency examined Bindbeutel's case and said she was right, the IRS has yet to pay her back.

...

In a statement, the IRS said: "We have referred this case to our independent inspector general. ... If an IRS employee took any inappropriate actions, and if those actions caused harm to this taxpayer in any way, we sincerely apologize."

Two years later, Bindbeutel said the money has become secondary.

"Now it's not the money anymore, it's the principle," she said. "This is wrong. You shouldn't be allowed to do this to anybody. Especially when I've paid it twice."

The Honorable Judge Roy BeanThe world is a car and you're a crash-test dummy.The Devil Makes Three